 By Cain Arsenault Caribou: "Never Let the Bastards Get You Down""Never let the bastards get you down." That's what my uncle told me one time years ago, when we were having a conversation about my peers in high school. I can imagine that similar advice was also imparted upon Dan Snaith at some point in his life. For those of you who aren't familiar with the name Dan Snaith, he is the mastermind behind the psychedelic bliss machine that is Caribou [formerly known as Manitoba]. At a recent show at the Opera House, I managed to catch up with Dan for a bit during sound-check and got the chance to chat with him about, among other things, his new album, The Milk of Human Kindness, the fore-mentioned lawsuit, his recently completed Math PHD. (that's right, he's got a PHD in Mathematics) and the genesis of Caribou. Truth.Explosion: So how was the recording of the album this time? Did you do everything yourself or..?
Dan Snaith: Yeah, I pretty much...again...like being total obsessive kind of...isolated for a few...like I just... it was right after the lawsuit shit all happened, I was just like 'ahh fuck' all of a sudden I had some time to make music again and I was just so excited to get in there, so it was just me not leaving my room for ays and just recording and recording...
T.E: Why, you have you own studio set up?
DS: Well most of this album was...literally, in my bedroom. My girlfriend would be asleep, with her fingers in her ears [laughs] and whatever and I'd be fucking playing guitar solos on the other side of her...it was ridiculous.
T.E: How has the tour been going so far? Anything in particular that sticks out in your mind?
DS: I've been on tour for the last seven weeks, I can give you a synopsis of all the shit that has gone hilariously wrong on the tour...we'd just played thirty shows in a row, so we're all totally exhausted when we get to Los Angeles, so we go to the beach...a perfect little day off, one day off...pretty much the whole tour, that's all we got. Jeremy is running through the water, within two minutes, there's this shooting pain going through his foot...crippling him, and he's screaming and...falls to the ground. He stepped on a stingray that swung around and bit this huge fucking hole in his foot, he had to go to the hospital, all of us, sitting there for hours...
T.E: Shit
DS: These are actually the things that happened in the last couple of weeks...the tours about all I can remember now because we've been on the road for so long.
T.E: How much downtime did you have between going off the last (tour) and touring this one?
DS: We kind of stopped touring last summer for pretty much a year but I kind of immediately...I don't ever have any downtime, and I kind of like it that way I guess, it's just, I've always been that kind of person in my life, if I have any time I'll just start, filling it up with stuff. I guess if we finished touring, and then I had to finish off my PHD, and then I had to make this new album, and then all of a sudden, we're touring again...
T.E : That reminds me...there's another interview I read, where you were talking about the PHD [in math], and I kind of, in my head at least anyways, sort of saw how there could be a connection between the math thing and the way you write music, do you find that at all?
DS: I don't know, I mean, I make music in as intuitive a way as possible, everything's trial and error really, stuff gets thrown down together. I mean, I don't know, I think I like the two both for the same reasons, both because they're obsessive kinds of pursuits, and I don't see any direct similarities between the two beyond that.
T.E: I am curious, how you managed doing school, writing a PHD and a tour all at the same time...how do you find time to sleep? [chuckles]
DS: Ya, I don't sleep, that's the key [more chuckles] sleep maybe, is one avenue I haven't...uhh...the PHD, it wasn't like courses though, it was kind of just doing my own research project. Occasionally, I'd be in the back of the van working shit out, like if/when I had a spare second...
T.E: Yeah, I went to college, ten years ago and I just can't even imagine trying to do a tour and school and all that and all at the same time.
DS: Yeah, I kind of like that shit though, I like to keep insanely busy, sometimes I definitely go over the edge, and like, start losing my mind and...I like having lots to do.
T.E: The music thing, do you plan on doing this forever? Or do you have a, a sort of game plan about your life?
DS: I don't have any game plan...I don't think I really, particularly need one. I'll do this as long as I enjoy doing it and it's feasible or whatever...I always, you know...I really enjoy and like mathematics and would like to be teaching mathematics...if you want to put that there, that would be the other thing that I would probably end up doing.
T.E: Yeah, I was going to ask you that, because I was wondering why you went through all the schooling for that.
DS: I didn't do it for that reason...I think it might appear like it's a kind of ...career move or something but, I just like, enjoyed...I just do both music and math because I've always really enjoyed doing them...getting absorbed in it like when I did the PHD.
T.E: I also read somewhere that you come from a family of math professors. Is that true?
DS: Pretty much, it was almost everybody. I got an English professor sister too. [chuckles] A lot of academics.
T.E: That must have been weird to grow up in...
DS: I think I definitely inherited being able to do math from my dad, you know, or my parents, there's no question about that. When we were growing up, all of us, like me and my two sisters, we were just like, the last thing we want to do is end up being math professors...you'll always be fucking rabbitting on about it all the time...it wasn't until I got to University that I realized that, I really did enjoy doing it. I really enjoyed it being a challenge. Math and music were the things that were I guess, really like a challenge to me.
T.E: I was really impressed with the one (interview) I recently read, which basically said how you just chose to change the (band) name and go on. It didn't seem like you decided to get bitter about it or anything like that, you know?
DS: I just kind of figured, it was just this kind of...in the end, it was just kind of a waste, you know? What am I spending my time dealing with this guy for? It's just like, go away...I'll get back to doing what I want to be doing. Arguing with this guy wasn't what I wanted to do, at all. And its just, its worked, things are going really well with the new record, and people are kind of "oh ok, it's called Caribou now".
T.E: Absolutely...I just thought it was weird how he could even sue you, it's just like, how can you copyright the name, it's a province here...
DS: Yeah well...I mean, he sued me in the U.S. so...here he couldn't have sued me for that, but in the U.S. it's under their jurisdiction there...
T.E: So what, you could technically use the name Manitoba here?
DS: No, well I mean...he had no right to like, make me change my name in Canada but he was only going to drop the lawsuit, which, I couldn't afford to fight, if we changed the name everywhere in the world. So we did it, we changed the name everywhere. And plus, I mean, what the fuck, let's not be half-assed, let's have a whole new start, kind of like 'fuck you see you later'!
T.E: So why Caribou?
DS: We were touring across Canada, we were in the prairies...we just sat in a field and...took a bunch of acid and kind of...hung out 'til we came up with something ...it's just perfect cause it has the same kind of...associations I guess for me...Manitoba kind of sounds the same, it has the same things going on...
T.E: So there was no caribou that magically appeared out of the forest while you guys were tripping?
DS: Uhhh...no I don't think there was any actual caribou...not that I can remember anyways...maybe one of the other guys would...
T.E: Thank you so much for your time Dan. I've got one last question for you. What is the "truth" of Caribou?
DS: I'm not sure if I have any like, grand statement such as that, I mean...one thing I think is to be nice to people, basically, but now I'm kind of trying to enjoy myself and not be a dickhead to people and that's about it...that's not really a grand plan, it just kind of seems to be...the way that I want to be.
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